$func->(@args);

Or if your code needs to run on older versions of Perl, such as 5.005 (update: 5.003), use the old-fashioned equivalent syntax &$func(@args);.

Good point about the older versions of perl, but you'll only have to resort to the uglier (IMHO) syntax you describe if your code needs to run on perl 5.003 or earlier. The $coderef->(PARAMS) syntax was introduced in perl 5.004.

http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.8.0/pod/perl5004delta.html#New-and-changed-syntax

Thanks to tye and davido for doc links.

--
3dan

2) In the timeout_func function, is there a way of getting the function name from the coderef somehow, so that when this times out, I can log the function name of the function that has taken longer than the timeout value?

See Re: Getting name of sub from a hash-based dispatch table? for a function to convert a coderef to sub name.

Does anyone know why the timeout does not work when I use the `<system command>` for performing system commands?

No. I tested it with `cmd`, and it works fine for me. I am on Linux, and it sounds like you are on Win32, so maybe it's an OS thing with signals? *shrug*.

In the timeout_func function, is there a way of getting the function name from the coderef somehow ... ?

Not that I know of. You could get the name of the function from within the function itself with (caller 0)[3], but that won't help you in timeout_func (unless you set a package variable or something yucky like that). You could resort to using symbolic refs, though it's playing with fire...

timeout_func($timeout, 'myfunc', ...);

sub timeout_func
{
    my ($timeout, $func_name, @args) = @_;
    
    # ...

    eval
    {
        # ...
        {
            no strict 'refs';
            $func_name->(@args);
        }
    }
    
    if ($@)
    {
        die "$func_name died ($@)\n";
    }
}
[download]

Notice that you pass the name of the function to call, instead of a hard reference to the function (the \&myfunc syntax).

--
edan (formerly known as 3dan)

Hi edan,

Thanks for your posting.

I have tried both types of system command method and Linux and found the timeout to work. So it is a Windows32 problem.

Do you know how I can find out more about the timeout not working when I use the `<system command>` method?

I have read your suggestion about finding out the name of a function that has been passed into a function and am not sure on doing anything that is playing with fire.

Do you know what makes this method playing with fire?

Thank you. Richard Thomas.